A new report published today by Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design in partnership with The Governance Lab (The GovLab) lays out a clear framework with practical advice for how public bodies can use collective intelligence techniques to tackle community challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Collective intelligence uses new technology to harnesses the ideas and skills of the public.

From Taiwan to Helsinki, healthcare to sustainability, the report shows good practice examples of how global leaders and public sector bodies have tapped into the collective brainpower of crowds; including what resources were involved, what level of time commitment and what practices made it possible to solve problems more efficiently and make public services better and more inclusive.*

The report argues that collective intelligence can help make our public services better and more inclusive and that it should be part of how any institution thinks about solving problems in the 21st century.

The research captures the lessons learned from pioneering public bodies around the world and distils them into practical advice and insights. Drawing out what works and what doesn’t work across a range of sectors, the report looks at how collective intelligence can help to solve problems in less costly and more effective ways than traditional approaches.

It is especially timely as public sector organisations begin to develop new ways of responding to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Nesta, using the collective intelligence of a place or community holds the key to effective recovery for many public bodies as they grapple with unprecedented change and challenge.

GoodSAM (www.goodsamapp.org), a global platform developed in the UK, is heralded as an example to follow driving new and improved ways of delivering vital public services. The platform recruited and manages 750,000 NHS Volunteers providing vital care to those self-isolating because of Covid-19. The platform has many other roles crowdsourcing resuscitation to cardiac arrest and providing the most advanced video triage services to ambulance and police 999 and 111 services.

Despite such successes, many collective intelligence projects are often short lived or fail to achieve impact as governments struggle to integrate collective intelligence in long term strategies. Drawing on the case studies in the report, Nesta and GovLab lay out 10 key lessons for the sustained application of collective intelligence from planning for success and using open source tools to securing diverse sources of funding and shifting organisational cultures.**

Professor Mark Wilson OBE, consultant neurosurgeon and co-founder of GoodSAM.org, said: “GoodSAM has radically changed volunteering and the third sector providing technology to save lives and enabling micro-volunteering. The benefits to the emergency (ambulance and police), NHS (GP and Hospital) services and ultimately to patients and the public are considerable.”

Peter Baeck, Co-Head of the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design at Nesta, said: “We know collective intelligence and tools such as crowdsourcing and citizen science are vital in extending our problem-solving capacity, and it can play a key role in combatting the complex issues caused by Covid-19. Too often those working in the public sector do not know how to design crowd and institution collaboration and therefore struggle to engage with the public efficiently and act upon their ideas to solve problems. We follow the same approaches, with no different results. Working more openly and collaboratively requires public bodies to develop new capabilities and procedures. We want to support the sector to meet this challenge.”

Beth Simone Noveck, Director of The GovLab, said: “As novel challenges continue to present themselves around the world, it is becoming increasingly apparent that traditional ways of solving problems are outdated and ineffective. Through this research, we have observed that institutions which choose to work more openly and collaboratively with local organizations and citizens are better able to respond to public problems, including emergencies and crises such as the challenges brought on by COVID-19. We hope this research can advance the knowledge needed to improve and modernize the way we solve problems.”

Visit https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/using-collective-intelligence-solve-public-problems/ to learn more about using collective intelligence in the public sector.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information on the findings and for interviews or comment please contact: [email protected] or 07879648755

For further information on the findings and for interviews or comment in the US please contact:

[email protected]

* 10 examples of crowd and institution collaboration in practice:

#RevoluciónCRandDesafíosSP - platforms for open policymakingin Costa Rica and Mexico

Carbon-Neutral Helsinki 2035 – collaborative climate action in Helsinki

Challenge.gov – more than 100 federal agencies crowdsource solutions

Finnish Citizens’ initiative – crowdsourcing legislative proposals in Finland

PulsePoint and GoodSAM – smartphone apps that crowdsource first responders to help others experiencing life-threatening emergencies

Safecast – using citizen science to map radiation and air quality at a global scale

synAthina – using participatory techniques to re-activate a derelict municipal market in Athens

Ushahidi – crowdmapping to inform responses in chaotic or disaster situations

vTaiwan – reaching consensus using collective intelligence

Belgian sortition models: The Ostbelgien Model and The Brussels Model – institutionalising deliberative democracy

**10 global lessons for how to leverage collective intelligence:

Design for success: The most successful projects are those where organisers have planned ahead, can articulate a concrete and specific task, involve the right people, and above all use what they learnt.

Use Open Source Tools: Use of open source software enables projects to learn, evolve and develop tailored designs and refine them based on citizens’ feedback.

Solving a problem, transforming an institution: The projects that live longest combine a concrete and specific task with a broader mission to transform institutional cultures and their way of working from closed to open.

Tap existing passions and interests: Passions that address a strongly felt need can tap the enthusiasm and skills of people, both leaders and participants who wish to solve public problems.

Provide training to participants: Many civil servants and citizens are keen to help solve problems but often lack the know-how. Training can amplify participants’ impactand make them more likely to stay involved.

Secure robust and predictable funding: Collective intelligence projects can benefit from diverse, changing and often unexpected sources of funding.

Test, adapt and test again: As problems shift, collective intelligence projects need to continuously

test new approaches, and adapt to meet emerging challenges and remain relevant in the public eye.

Resource availability: Scarcity of time and money in public institutions can hamper their ability to collaborate with crowds, yet engaging crowds can be an efficient way of public resources to solve problems.

Organisational culture: Fostering a culture of transparency can help a public organisation to communicate information internally and to the public and to show that the government is listening.

Political support: The most successful collaborations between crowds and institutions are strengthened by public champions within the institution and political support outside it.

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society. We've spent over 20 years working out the best ways to make change happen through research and experimenting, and we've applied that to our work in innovation policy, health, education, government innovation and the creative economy and arts. Nesta is based in the UK and supported by a financial endowment. We work with partners around the globe to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good. Visit: https://www.nesta.org.uk/

The GovLab is an action research center based at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. It was founded by Beth Simone Noveck and Stefaan Verhulst in 2012 with the goal of promoting the design of more open, effective and networked governing institutions using data, technology and crowdsourcing. Visit: www.thegovlab.org

GoodSAM is providing the instant ability to locate and open any caller’s mobile phone camera to emergency services, ambulance, police and fire, across the UK, USA and around the world. This is dramatically improving dispatch efficiency. Nesta is supporting GoodSAM to grow through their Accelerating Ideas programme in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund. www.goodsamapp.org